Bush Tetras are an American

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

No Wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

band from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, formed in 1979. They are best known for the 1980 song "Too Many Creeps", which exemplified the band's sound of "jagged rhythms, slicing guitars, and sniping vocals"."Bush Tetras: Biography by Mark Deming."
''AllMusic.com''. Retrieved July 17, 2018. Although they did not achieve mainstream success, the Bush Tetras were influential and popular in the

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

club scene and college radio in the early 1980s. New York's post-punk revival of the 2000s was accompanied by a resurgence of interest in the genre, with the Tetras' influence heard in many of that scene's bands.

History

Formation, name, and early years

The Bush Tetras formed in 1979, and soon solidified with a lineup of Cynthia Sley (vocals), Pat Place (guitar), Laura Kennedy (bass) and Dee Pop (drums); vocalist Adele Bertei and guitarist Jimmy Joe Uliana were brief early members. Place had previously been the original guitarist and a founding member of the

no wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City. The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music. Reacting against punk rock's recycling of rock and r ...

band the Contortions, though the Tetras sound was less frantic and disjointed, and she had also appeared in some of Vivienne Dick's movies. The band was named after a tiny African primate the band found very cute called " bush babies", and a kind of fish the band liked called a "

neon tetra The neon tetra (''Paracheirodon innesi'') is a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to blackwater and clearwater streams in the Amazon basin of South Am ...

" (taking one word from each of those names). The band thought the name sounded "tribal". The band's debut 7-inch EP, "Too Many Creeps", was released in 1980 on

99 Records 99 Records was an American independent record label, active from 1980 to 1984. The label was home to musicians in the no wave, post-punk, post-disco, and avant-garde scenes in New York City. History British designer Gina Franklyn sold British fas ...

. It reached No. 57 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' club play chart. The follow-up, "Things That Go Boom in the Night", was issued in 1981 by Fetish Records, hitting No. 43 on the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the ...

. The ''Rituals'' 12-inch EP, produced by

Topper Headon Nicholas Bowen "Topper" Headon (born 30 May 1955) is an English drummer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer of punk rock band the Clash. Headon was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of the Clash in 2003. ...

the Clash The Clash were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements ...

and including the popular "Can't Be Funky", was released in 1981 by Fetish in the UK and by

Stiff Records Stiff Records is a British independent record label formed in London by Dave Robinson (music executive), Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007. Established at the outset of the p ...

in the U.S. It reached No. 32 on the ''Billboard'' club chart. Two live tracks (a cover of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

's " Cold Turkey" and "Punch Drunk") appeared on the 1981

compilation ''Start Swimming'', documenting a one-night showcase of New York bands (also including

the Bongos The Bongos are a power pop band from Hoboken, New Jersey, that emerged from the New York City arts scene, primarily active in the 1980s, led by Richard Barone. With their unique musical style, they were major progenitors of the Hoboken indie-pop ...

, the Raybeats and the dBs) at the

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

in London on February 20, 1981. Another live release, the cassette-only ''Wild Things'' (1983), was issued by

ROIR ROIR (pronounced "roar"), or Reachout International Records, is a New York City-based independent record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper. Background ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label ex ...

. Kennedy and Pop left in 1983, replaced briefly by bassist Bob Albertson and drummer Don Christensen, but the band soon broke up. ROIR issued a posthumous cassette-only collection, ''Better Late Than Never (Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983)'' in 1989. In the 1984

Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS, feminism, and gender ...

/Ellen Cooper film '' Cave Girls'', Bush Tetras music plays over long passages of out of focus, foggy, visually noisy, action.

Reunions

The original line-up of Bush Tetras reformed in 1995 and released the album '' Beauty Lies'' in 1997. Two other compilations were also issued, a CD version of ''Better Late Than Never'' retitled ''Boom in the Night (Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983)'' in 1995, and ''Tetrafied: Previously Released Recordings'' in 1996. In 1997, Kennedy departed again and was replaced as bassist by Julia Murphy. In 1998, they recorded an album with producer Don Fleming for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

, titled ''Happy'', but it was shelved when Mercury was sold (the album was finally released in 2012 by ROIR). In 2005, the band resumed performing in New York City, and toured Europe in summer 2006. Original bassist Kennedy died on November 14, 2011, after a long battle with liver disease. In February 2013, Cindy Rickmond (formerly of Cheap Perfume, Grayson Hugh, Church of Betty and Unknown Gender) briefly replaced Murphy as the band's bassist. In early 2016, Val Opielski (formerly of Krakatoa, Walking Hellos, PSXO and 1000 Yard Stare) joined the group on bass. In 2018, they released an EP, ''Take the Fall'', on Wharf Cat Records.Then, in 2019, they released a 7-inch single, "There Is a Hum", on Thirdman Records. Drummer Dee Pop died on October 9, 2021. In November 2021, a career-spanning boxed set titled ''Rhythm and Paranoia: the Best of the Bush Tetras'' was released, along with a booklet with contributions by Topper Headon of The Clash and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. A performance at New York's ''Le Poisson Rouge'' accompanied the release, with "Too Many Creeps" producer Don Christensen replacing Dee Pop on drums, and new bassist RB Korbet playing with the band in front of a live audience for the first time. In March 2022 the Bush Tetras performed at a Dee Pop memorial show at NYC's Bowery Electric. Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth filled in on drums. On April 5, 2023, it was announced the Cait O'Riordan had joined the band on bass.

Other projects

After the band's initial breakup, Sley joined up with

Ivan Julian Ivan Julian (born June 26, 1955) is a guitarist, singer-songwriter, and founding member of Richard Hell and the Voidoids and Lovelies. He has also performed with The Isley Brothers, The Clash, Matthew Sweet, The Bongos, Richard Barone, and Shr ...

Richard Hell and the Voidoids Richard Hell and the Voidoids were an American punk rock band, formed in New York City in 1976 and fronted by Richard Hell, a former member of the Neon Boys, Television (band), Television and the Heartbreakers. History Kentucky-born Richard H ...

to form Lovelies. They put out one percussive post-punk album, ''Mad Orphan'' (109 Records), in 1988. In 2008, she formed Command V with Pat Irwin (of the Raybeats and

the B-52s The B-52s, originally presented as the B-52's (with an errant grocer's apostrophe, apostrophe; used until 2008), are an American band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate ...

), and Rachel Dengiz. They released a self-titled album in 2012 on Mush Records. Drummer Dee Pop also performed with improvisational jazz groups Radio I-Ching and Freedomland, and has performed or recorded with rock-oriented bands and artists including Floor Kiss, Immaculate Hearts, the Shams, Black Flies, John Sinclair,

Jayne County Jayne County (born Wayne Rogers) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and visual artist whose career has spanned six decades. Under the name Wayne County (inspired by Wayne County, Michigan), she was the vocalist of infl ...

, the Amazing Cherubs, Fur,

Michael Karoli Michael Karoli (29 April 1948 – 17 November 2001) was a German guitarist, violinist, and sound-mixer. He was a founding member of the krautrock band Can. Biography Early life Michael Karoli was born 29 April 1948 in Straubing, Bavaria, t ...

( Can), Richard Lloyd,

James Chance James Chance, also known as James White (born James Siegfried, April 20, 1953 – June 18, 2024), was an American saxophonist, keyboard player, and singer. A key figure in no wave, Chance played a combination of improvisational jazz-like musi ...

the Slits The Slits were a punk/post-punk band based in London, formed there in 1976 by members of the groups the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up (Ariane Forster) and Palmolive (a.k.a. Paloma Rom ...

Odetta Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and s ...

, Gary Lucas, Bobby Radcliff,

Patti Palladin Patti Palladin is an American singer and musician of the punk rock and post-punk / new wave genres. She is primarily known for her work with Snatch (with Judy Nylon), Johnny Thunders, and the Flying Lizards. Career Palladin was a member of the ...

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, Andy Shernoff, the Waldos, Nona Hendryx, Band of Outsiders, Lenny Kaye, Jahn Xavier and

the Gun Club The Gun Club were an American post-punk band from Los Angeles that existed from 1979 to 1996. Created and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce, they were notable as one of the first bands in the punk rock subculture to i ...

. He also performed with jazz musicians Eddie Gale, Roy Campbell Jr.,

Marc Ribot Marc Ribot (; born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, Rock music, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notab ...

, Mark Helias, Dick Griffin, Billy Bang, Borah Bergman and Hanuman Sextet. Pat Place also played with Maggie Estep's I Love Everybody and Joey's Oscar in the 90s; at one time, she was a member of James Chance and the Contortions, playing steel guitar and featuring on the Brian Eno-produced ''

No New York ''No New York'' is a no wave compilation album released in 1978 by record label Antilles under the curation of producer Brian Eno. Although it only contains songs by four different artists, it has been considered important in defining and docu ...

'' as one of four bands in the initial New York no wave scene.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Beauty Lies'' (1997, Polygram Records) * ''Very Very Happy'' (2007, ROIR) * ''Happy'' (2012, ROIR) * ''They Live in My Head'' (2023, Wharf Cat Records)

Singles and EPs

* "Too Many Creeps" 7-inch EP (1980,

) #57 Billboard Dance Club Songs * "Things That Go Boom in the Night" 7-inch single (1981, Fetish Records) #43

* "Can't Be Funky" 7-inch single (1981, Fetish Records) * ''Rituals'' 12-inch EP (1981, Fetish Records/

) #32 Billboard Dance Club Songs * "Page 18" 12-inch single (1996, Tim/Kerr Records) * "Too Many Creeps" 7-inch single (2011, ROIR) * "Take the Fall" EP (2018, Wharf Cat Records) * "There is a Hum" 7” (2019, Thirdman Records)

Live albums

* ''Wild Things'' cassette-only (1983,

)

Compilation albums

* ''Better Late Than Never (Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983)'' cassette-only (1989, ROIR) * ''Boom in the Night (Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983)'' (1995, ROIR) * ''Tetrafied: Previously Released Recordings'' (1996, Thirsty Ear) *
Rhythm and Paranoia: The Best of Bush Tetras
' (2021, Wharf Cat Records)

Compilation appearances

* " Cold Turkey" (

cover) and "Punch Drunk" on ''Start Swimming'' (1981,

) * "Das Ah Riot" on ''The Last Testament'' (1983, Fetish Records) * "Rituals" on ''New York Rockers'' (1989, ROIR) * "Too Many Creeps" on ''Totally Wired'' (1995, Razor & Tie) * "Cowboys in Africa" on ''I eartNew York Punk!'' (1995, free with ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in Hoodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Mojo'' (2017 film), a 2017 Indian Kannada drama film written and directed by Sreesha Belakvaadi * '' ...

'' issue 144) * "Sister Midnight" (

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...

cover) on ''We Will Fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute'' (1997, Royalty Records) * "Too Many Creeps" on ''New Wave Dance Hits of the '80s: Just Can't Get Enough'' (1997,

Rhino Records A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

) * "Too Many Creeps" on ''Rough Trade Shops - Post Punk 01'' (2003,

Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller (music producer), Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure (duo), Erasure, Einstürze ...

) * "Can't Be Funky" on ''New York Noise (Dance Music from the New York Underground 1978-1982)'' (2003,

Soul Jazz Records Soul Jazz Records is a British record label based in London. Outside of releasing records, the label also publishes books, occasionally films and performs as a DJ set. The music releases labels from a variety of genres, including reggae, house, ...

) * "Too Many Creeps" on ''The Definitive Story of CBGB (The Home of U.S. Punk)'' (2006, Salvo) * "Punch Drunk" on ''So Indie It Hurts: Roir Rocks Volume One'' (2008, ROIR) * "Too Many Creeps" on ''Death Disco (Mojo Presents a Compendium of Post-Punk Grooves)'' (2014, free with ''Mojo'' issue 246)

Members

;Current * Cynthia Sley – vocals (1979–1983, 1995–1998, 2005–present) * Pat Place – guitar (1979–1983, 1995–1998, 2005–present) * Steve Shelley – drums (2022–present) * Cait O'Riordan – bass (2023–present) ;Former * Laura Kennedy – bass (1979–1983, 1995–1997) ''(died 2011)'' * Jimmy Joe Uliana – guitar (1979) * Adele Bertei – vocals (1979) * Bob Albertson – bass (1983) * Julia Murphy – bass (1997–2013, 2015) * Cindy Rickmond – bass (2013) * Val Opielski – bass (2015–2020) * Dee Pop – drums (1979–1983, 1995–1998, 2005–2021) ''(died 2021)'' * Don Christensen – drums (1983), (2021–2022) * R.B. Korbet – bass (2022)

References

External links

Too Many Creeps music video

PUNKCAST#1076 Live video from Knitting Factory NYC

* ttp://thisisoffset.co.uk/?p=25 thisisoffset Photos, videos and biog of the Bush Tetras* * {{Authority control 1979 establishments in New York City Musical groups from New York City American post-punk music groups No wave groups ROIR artists Musical groups established in 1979